JP2013206420A - On-vehicle information recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To correctly perform an evaluation about vehicle safety driving in real time by taking an influence of weather, such as fine weather and wet weather into consideration without accompanying a drastic increase in cost.SOLUTION: An on-vehicle information recorder includes: a safety driving evaluation part 140 for comparing a vehicle speed or the like with a threshold to output an evaluation result about safety driving; a position information acquisition part 160 for acquiring the current position of the vehicle; a specific point information holding part 112 for holding position information representing a position in a horizontal direction and height of a road surface in a vertical direction as specific point information about one or more specific places on the road; an atmospheric pressure sensor 13; and a weather state identification part 111 for identifying fine weather/wet weather on the basis of height of the specific point information and calculation height calculated on the basis of atmospheric pressure when the current position of the vehicle almost coincides with the position of the specific point information in a horizontal direction, and automatically changing a threshold referred to by the safety driving evaluation part in accordance with a change in the weather.

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle information recording apparatus that automatically collects and stores information related to the operation status of a vehicle on the vehicle, and more particularly to a technique for evaluating safe driving.

  For example, in a transportation company that performs transportation work using vehicles such as taxis, buses, trucks, etc., it is an important issue to promote safe driving for each in-house crew member and prevent accidents.

  Therefore, for example, an operation recording device called “digital tachograph” is used so that the managers located in the carrier's company can always check whether each crew member is actually performing safe driving on a daily basis. Has been.

  This digital tachograph is installed in each vehicle such as a taxi, bus, truck, etc., and information such as speed and engine speed obtained every fixed time (for example, 0.5 seconds) is stored in a storage device such as a memory card or cloud. It is automatically recorded in the system.

  Therefore, the administrator reads the data collected by the digital tachograph from the memory card using, for example, an analysis program installed in a personal computer installed in the sales office, and examines this data in detail to Travel time, mileage, maximum speed, average speed, speed over-time, speed over-count, engine speed over-time or over-speed, sudden start, sudden acceleration, sudden deceleration, idling time, etc. It is possible to grasp for each crew member, and based on the grasped result, it becomes possible to promote safe driving and economical driving for each crew member.

  In addition, when a vehicle is actually running, a technology is also known for the digital tachograph, which is a vehicle-mounted device, to automatically evaluate whether or not the vehicle is in a safe operating state and to record the result of the evaluation on a recording medium. (Patent Document 1).

  Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a technology of a moving body regulation speed evaluation system. Patent Document 2 proposes that evaluation is performed using a regulated speed in accordance with a snow-climbing situation in consideration of a change in operation state due to snowfall in a railway vehicle. Specifically, the density and moisture content are measured by the amount of attenuation of electromagnetic waves as the properties of deposits such as snow.

  Moreover, the technique disclosed by patent document 3 is known as a prior art regarding the apparatus which estimates a weather change using an atmospheric pressure sensor.

JP 2009-199328 A JP 2007-210445A JP-A-3-13884

  As disclosed in Patent Document 1, an in-vehicle device equipped with a function for automatically evaluating whether or not the vehicle is in a safe driving state while the vehicle is running may output the evaluation result in real time. Is possible. For example, when the host vehicle is traveling exceeding a predetermined upper limit value of the vehicle speed, a warning of excessive speed can be output by sound or display.

  On the other hand, in a vehicle such as an automobile, a change in weather greatly affects the operation status of the vehicle. For example, when the road surface on which the vehicle is traveling becomes wet due to rain, the coefficient of friction between the road surface and the tire is greatly reduced, and slipping is likely to occur. At the same time, the driver's field of view deteriorates and it becomes difficult to drive.

  Therefore, when evaluating whether or not the vehicle is in a safe operating state, there is a high possibility that correct evaluation cannot be performed unless the influence of changes in the situation due to weather or the like is taken into consideration. Therefore, at the time of evaluation, as disclosed in Patent Document 2, it is conceivable to measure the properties of deposits such as snow and reflect the results in the evaluation.

  However, in order to employ the technique of Patent Document 2, a relatively large measuring device is required to measure the properties of the deposit, and the cost of the device is inevitable. Moreover, it cannot be said that the correlation between the property of the detected deposit and the slipperiness of the road surface in an automobile is necessarily high.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and its object is to evaluate the safe driving of a vehicle in consideration of the influence of weather such as rainy weather / sunny weather without accompanying a significant cost increase. An object of the present invention is to provide an in-vehicle information recording apparatus capable of performing correctly in real time.

In order to achieve the above-described object, the in-vehicle information recording apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by the following (1) to (3).
(1) An on-vehicle information recording device that automatically collects and stores information on at least the operation status of the vehicle on the vehicle,
A safe driving evaluation unit that outputs an evaluation result related to safe driving by comparing at least one of the vehicle speed and engine rotation speed of the vehicle with a threshold;
A position information acquisition unit for acquiring vehicle position information representing the current position of the vehicle;
A specific point information holding unit for holding, as specific point information, position information indicating a horizontal position and a vertical height of a road surface for one or more specific points on a predetermined road;
An atmospheric pressure sensor;
Calculated based on the height of the specific point information and the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor when the current position of the vehicle acquired by the position information acquisition unit and the horizontal position of the specific point information substantially coincide. A weather condition identifying unit that identifies at least two types of weather conditions based on the calculated altitude and automatically switches a threshold value referred to by the safe driving evaluation unit according to a change in the weather condition.
(2) The on-vehicle information recording device according to (1) above,
Information on the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor or the calculated altitude calculated based on the atmospheric pressure is stored in a predetermined information recording area as operation data associated with the current position of the vehicle acquired by the position information acquisition unit. It further includes an information storage control unit for storing,
The specific point information holding unit holds a part of operation data collected in the past by the information storage control unit and stored in the information recording area as the specific point information.
(3) The on-vehicle information recording device according to (1) above,
An image data acquisition unit that acquires image data from an in-vehicle camera mounted on the vehicle;
The weather condition identification unit uses an analysis result of the image data acquired by the image data acquisition unit as a weather condition identification condition.

According to the in-vehicle information recording device having the configuration (1), the threshold value can be automatically switched so that the change in the weather condition is reflected in the evaluation of the safe driving. Moreover, since an atmospheric pressure sensor is used, an increase in device cost can be suppressed.
According to the in-vehicle information recording device having the configuration (2), information that can be used as the calculated altitude and vehicle position information are included in the operation data recorded in the past. The specific point information can be generated. Therefore, the specific point information can be generated even in an environment where a map database including data representing altitudes (elevations) in various places is not available or there is no altitude data at the position of a desired specific point. .
According to the in-vehicle information recording apparatus having the configuration (3), the weather condition can be more accurately identified based on the video of the in-vehicle camera.

  According to the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of the present invention, since the atmospheric pressure sensor is used, the evaluation on the safe driving of the vehicle is performed in real time in consideration of the influence of weather such as rainy weather / sunny weather without accompanying a significant cost increase. It can be done correctly. Therefore, it is possible to output a warning such as overspeed in an appropriate situation.

  The present invention has been briefly described above. Further, the details of the present invention will be further clarified by reading through a mode for carrying out the invention described below (hereinafter referred to as “embodiment”) with reference to the accompanying drawings. .

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an in-vehicle information recording device according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of specific point information used by the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a weather identification process in the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing operation data generation processing in the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of operation data recorded by the operation data generation process of FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a management apparatus that supports creation of specific point information. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing main operations in the management apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an in-vehicle information recording device according to a modification. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a weather identification process in the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of FIG.

  Specific embodiments relating to the in-vehicle information recording apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Hardware configuration example of in-vehicle information recording device>
An example of the hardware configuration of the in-vehicle information recording apparatus 100 in this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, an in-vehicle information recording device 100 that is an in-vehicle device includes a digital tachograph body 110, a slope detection unit 130, a driving condition evaluation unit 140, a warning output unit 150, a GPS receiver 160, and an operation unit 170. ing.

  A vehicle speed sensor 11 and an engine rotation sensor 12 are connected to the digital tachograph body 110. A vehicle speed sensor 11 and an atmospheric pressure sensor 13 are connected to the slope detection unit 130. Further, the operation recording memory card 21 and the setting memory card 22 can be attached to the digital tachograph main body 110.

  The vehicle speed sensor 11 is mounted on the vehicle side, and outputs a pulse signal called a vehicle speed pulse each time the transmission output shaft of the vehicle rotates a predetermined amount. By grasping the number of pulses and the generation cycle of these vehicle speed pulses, it is possible to grasp the moving distance and traveling speed (vehicle speed) of the vehicle.

  The engine rotation sensor 12 is mounted on the vehicle side and outputs a pulse signal each time the engine drive shaft rotates a predetermined amount. By grasping the generation period of this pulse signal, the engine speed (rpm) can be grasped.

  The atmospheric pressure sensor 13 can output an electrical signal corresponding to the atmospheric pressure (atmospheric pressure). The atmospheric pressure fluctuates under the influence of weather conditions. Further, when the weather condition is constant, the atmospheric pressure changes according to the difference in altitude of the measurement points. Further, when the measurement point moves in the height direction (vertical direction), the atmospheric pressure varies accordingly. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the altitude (elevation) of the measurement point or detect a change in altitude based on the signal output from the atmospheric pressure sensor 13.

  The slope detection unit 130 can automatically detect a slope while the vehicle is traveling based on the signal output from the atmospheric pressure sensor 13 and the signal output from the vehicle speed sensor 11. Further, the slope detection unit 130 can output a measured value of the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor 13. In this embodiment, since the result of the slope detection is not used, the description of the slope detection operation is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the digital tachograph body 110 includes a microcomputer (CPU) 111, a nonvolatile memory (EEPROM) 112, interfaces (I / F) 113 to 120, and a clock circuit 121.

  The microcomputer 111 implements various control functions required for the digital tachograph main body 110 by executing a predetermined program stored therein in advance. The specific processing contents of the microcomputer 111 will be described later.

  The nonvolatile memory 112 holds data such as various constants referred to by the microcomputer 111. Since it is non-volatile, data is retained as it is even when supply of power is stopped. The contents of data held in the nonvolatile memory 112 can be rewritten as necessary. In the example shown in FIG. 1, data read from the setting memory card 22 by the microcomputer 111 can be written and registered in the nonvolatile memory 112.

  The clock circuit 121 can grasp the current time (hour: minute: second) and date, or the elapsed time from a certain point in time, by counting predetermined clock pulses having a constant period. The microcomputer 111 can acquire information such as the current date and time by accessing the clock circuit 121.

  The vehicle speed sensor 11, the engine rotation sensor 12, the GPS receiver 160, and the operation unit 170 are connected to the microcomputer 111 via interfaces 113, 114, 115, and 116, respectively. The slope detection unit 130 is connected to the microcomputer 111 via the interface 117, and the driving condition evaluation unit 140 is connected to the microcomputer 111 via the interface 118.

  The interfaces 119 and 120 have a slot in which a predetermined memory card can be mounted, and the operation recording memory card 21 and the setting memory card 22 can be mounted. The operation recording memory card 21 and the setting memory card 22 are detachable from the interfaces 119 and 120. The microcomputer 111 can access the operation recording memory card 21 via the interface 119, and can access the setting memory card 22 via the interface 120.

  The operation recording memory card 21 and the setting memory card 22 are constituted by a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory. The operation record memory card 21 is routinely used to store operation data collected by the digital tachograph body 110. That is, it is attached to the digital tachograph main body 110 before starting the operation of the vehicle, and during the operation of the vehicle, various data collection results relating to the operation of the vehicle are written to the operation recording memory card 21.

  The setting memory card 22 is attached to the digital tachograph body 110 when various parameters for determining the operating conditions of the digital tachograph body 110 need to be changed.

  The driving situation evaluation unit 140 automatically evaluates the driving situation in real time during operation of the vehicle. Specifically, “Vehicle speed excess” indicating a state in which the vehicle speed exceeds a predetermined upper limit value (threshold value), or “Engine speed excess” indicating a state in which the engine speed exceeds a predetermined upper limit value. Is detected. That is, by comparing the vehicle speed and engine rotation speed detected in real time with threshold values, an evaluation result is output regarding the occurrence of a dangerous situation.

  The warning output unit 150 issues a warning to the crew when a dangerous driving situation occurs. The warning output unit 150 actually has at least one function such as output of sound, output of alarm sound such as a buzzer, blinking of display, etc., and the driving condition evaluation unit 140 can display “overspeed” or “engine speed”. A warning is given to the crew when "excess" is detected.

The GPS receiver 160 receives radio waves coming from a plurality of GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites, and calculates the current position of the receiving point, that is, the current position (latitude / longitude) of the vehicle based on the time difference between these radio waves. Can be sought. Therefore, the digital tachograph main body 110 can acquire information on the current position of the vehicle from the GPS receiver 160.
The operation unit 170 has various buttons and switches that can accept an input operation of a crew member.

<Description of specific point information>
The in-vehicle information recording device 100 shown in FIG. 1 detects atmospheric pressure under specific conditions, and grasps the weather condition based on the atmospheric pressure. “Specific point information” is information related to the specific condition. FIG. 2 shows a specific configuration example of specific point information used by the in-vehicle information recording apparatus 100 shown in FIG.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the “specific point information” includes information on the specific point number, the position of the specific point, and the altitude of the specific point.

  The specific point number information P0n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents a number assigned to each specific point information. The specific point position information P1n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the position (latitude / longitude) of the corresponding specific point. The altitude information P2n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Of the specific point represents the altitude (altitude) of the vehicle position at the corresponding switching point.

  About the content of each specific point information shown in FIG. 6, it can produce using a part of operation data which the vehicle-mounted information recording device 100 shown in FIG. 1, for example records. The creation of specific point information will be described in detail later.

<Weather identification processing>
The weather identification process in the in-vehicle information recording device 100 of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. Specifically, the microcomputer 111 that controls the digital tachograph main body 110 executes the weather identification process of FIG. Before executing the weather identification process shown in FIG. 3, specific point information as shown in FIG. 2 is prepared, for example, on the nonvolatile memory 112. Actually, the microcomputer 111 reads the specific point information written on the setting memory card 22 and writes it on the nonvolatile memory 112.

The weather identification process in FIG. 3 will be described below.
In step S <b> 11, the microcomputer 111 acquires information on the current position (latitude / longitude) of the host vehicle from the GPS receiver 160.

  In step S12, the microcomputer 111 compares the current position (latitude / longitude) acquired in step S11 with the specific point position (P1n) of each “specific point information” registered on the nonvolatile memory 112. .

  As a result of the comparison in step S12, the microcomputer 111 selects “corresponding point information” corresponding to the position, and proceeds from step S13 to step S14.

  In step S <b> 14, the microcomputer 111 acquires the latest (currently detected) atmospheric pressure information (corresponding to the output of the atmospheric pressure sensor 13) from the slope detection unit 130 via the interface 117.

In step S15, the microcomputer 111 calculates the altitude of the current position (the altitude of the vehicle position) from the atmospheric pressure acquired in step S14. Specifically, the altitude (H1) [m] can be calculated using the following calculation formula.
H1 = k1 × (1− (P / k2 × Pa) ^ k3) (1)
k1, k2, k3: constant P: detected atmospheric pressure Pa: reference atmospheric pressure

  In practice, the pressure sensor 13 is calibrated under predetermined conditions, and the reference altitude (Pa) and the constants k1 to k3 are adjusted as necessary to calculate a correct altitude with high accuracy. It is possible.

  In step S16, the microcomputer 111 acquires altitude data (H2) of the “specific point information” selected in step S13.

  In step S17, the microcomputer 111 compares the altitude data (H2) of the “specific point information” acquired in step S16 with the altitude (H1) calculated in step S15 to identify the weather (clear weather / rainy weather). .

  For example, when the current position of the vehicle matches the switching point position P12 of the second “specific point information” shown in FIG. 2, the second “switching point information” is selected. Then, the altitude data (H2) of the altitude P22 of the specific point in the second “switching point information” is compared with the calculated altitude (H1).

Here, it is assumed that the altitude (H2) of P22 is calibrated in a clear sky condition in advance. In this case, if the current weather is fine, the altitude (H2) of P22 representing the height of the same place and the calculated altitude (H1) should almost coincide. However, if the weather is rainy, the atmospheric pressure is lower than that in fine weather, so the altitude (H1) calculated from this atmospheric pressure is expected to be considerably higher than the altitude (H2) of P22. Therefore, the weather can be identified by the following comparison.
When the condition of (H1> H2 + Hth) is satisfied: When the condition of fine weather (H1 ≦ H2 + Hth) is satisfied: Rainy weather Hth: A predetermined threshold (for example, 500 [m])

  If the microcomputer 111 detects a change in weather (from fine weather to rainy weather or from rainy weather to fine weather) in step S17, the microcomputer 111 proceeds to processing from step S17 to S18.

  In step S18, the microcomputer 111 automatically switches the evaluation threshold value in the driving condition evaluation unit 140 in accordance with the current weather (sunny / rainy weather) identified in step S17.

  Specifically, as threshold values representing the upper limit value of the vehicle speed and the upper limit value of the engine rotation speed used by the driving condition evaluation unit 140 in the evaluation, a clear sky threshold value suitable for clear weather and a rain threshold value suitable for rainy weather are used. Are prepared in advance. When the weather when the vehicle travels changes from clear weather to rainy weather, the microcomputer 111 gives a rainy weather threshold to the driving condition evaluation unit 140. Further, when the weather changes from rainy weather to sunny weather, the microcomputer 111 gives a clear sky threshold value to the driving condition evaluation unit 140.

  Therefore, when a point on the road that is highly likely to pass during the operation of the vehicle is registered in advance as a specific point, by referring to the specific point information during traveling, based on the altitude change due to atmospheric pressure The weather can be automatically identified. Further, the evaluation threshold value of the driving condition evaluation unit 140 can be automatically changed according to the change of weather.

<Generation of operation data>
Next, generation of operation data that can be used when creating the specific point information described above will be described.

  The operation data generation process in the in-vehicle information recording device 100 of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. That is, the operation data as shown in FIG. 5 can be written on the operation recording memory card 21 by the microcomputer 111 of the digital tachograph body 110 executing the processing shown in FIG. The operation data generation process in FIG. 4 will be described below.

  In step S21, the microcomputer 111 identifies whether or not a predetermined data recording condition is satisfied. For example, when data is collected and recorded at regular intervals, whether or not it is time to record is identified in step S21. If the data recording condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to the next step S22.

  In step S <b> 22, the microcomputer 111 acquires information representing the current position (latitude / longitude) of the vehicle from the GPS receiver 160.

  In step S <b> 23, the microcomputer 111 acquires the current measured value of atmospheric pressure (corresponding to the output of the atmospheric pressure sensor 13) from the slope detection unit 130.

  In step S24, the microcomputer 111 acquires information on altitude (elevation) at the current vehicle position. Specifically, the altitude (H1) is acquired from the above-described equation (1) based on the current atmospheric pressure acquired in step S23.

  In step S25, the microcomputer 111 includes the current position (latitude / longitude) information acquired in step S22, the atmospheric pressure information acquired in step S24 acquired in step S23, and the altitude information acquired in step S24. One set of operation data is written on the operation recording memory card 21. Note that the recording of altitude information may be omitted. Further, when information such as the latest vehicle speed, engine rotation speed, and travel distance is obtained at this time, these pieces of information are also collected as operation data belonging to the same group as information D1n to D9n shown in FIG. Record.

<Configuration example of operation data>
The structural example of the operation data recorded by the operation data generation process of FIG. 4 is shown in FIG. That is, the in-vehicle information recording apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1 writes and saves operation data having the configuration shown in FIG. 4 on the operation recording memory card 21 under certain conditions.

  In the example shown in FIG. 3, the operation data includes time, current position, vehicle speed, engine speed, travel distance, limit speed limit, engine speed limit limit, pressure measurement value, and altitude information. It is.

  Time information D1n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the time when the corresponding information is acquired. The current position information D2n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the current position (latitude / longitude) in the horizontal plane of the vehicle when the corresponding information is acquired. Vehicle speed information D3n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the moving speed of the vehicle when the corresponding information is acquired.

  Engine rotation speed information D4n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the engine rotation speed of the vehicle when the corresponding information is acquired. The travel distance information D5n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the travel distance of the vehicle (the travel distance after a certain point in time) when the corresponding information is acquired.

  The limit speed excess information D6n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents whether or not the vehicle speed when the corresponding information is acquired exceeds a predetermined upper limit value of the vehicle speed. Whether the engine speed limit excess information D7n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Exceeds the predetermined upper limit value of the engine speed when the corresponding information is acquired. Indicates whether or not.

  The atmospheric pressure measurement value information D8n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor 13 at the position of the vehicle when the corresponding information is acquired. The altitude information D9n (n: 1, 2, 3,...) Represents the height of the vehicle in the vertical direction when the corresponding information is acquired, that is, the altitude. Actually, it is the altitude obtained from the atmospheric pressure by a calculation formula.

  For example, at a certain timing, the digital tachograph body 110 acquires the third information D13, D23, D33, D43, D53, D63, D73, D83, and D93 shown in FIG. 5 almost simultaneously, and associates these pieces of information with each other. A set of operation data is written on the operation recording memory card 21.

<Create specific point information>
<Configuration Example of Device for Generating Specific Point Information>
A configuration example of the management apparatus 201 that supports creation of specific point information is shown in FIG. This management device 201 is arranged at an office of a transportation company that owns and manages the corresponding vehicle.

  The management apparatus 201 shown in FIG. 6 is configured by an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer. As shown in FIG. 6, the management apparatus 201 can use a data registration application program 202, a map database 203, and memory card interfaces 204 and 205.

  Further, when generating the specific point information, as shown in FIG. 6, the above-mentioned operation recording memory card 21 is attached to the memory card interface 205, and the setting memory card 22 is attached to the memory card interface 204.

  The operation recording memory card 21 used in this case is one in which operation data as shown in FIG. 5 has already been recorded. The setting memory card 22 is used as a writing destination of the generated switching point information.

  Similar to the map data used by a general car navigation device, the map database 203 holds a large amount of map data including road information in advance. The data registration application program 202 supports the operation of the administrator who operates the management apparatus 201 and performs processing useful for generating switching point information.

<Operation of Management Device 201>
FIG. 7 shows main operations of the management apparatus 201 shown in FIG. That is, when the management apparatus 201 executes the data registration application program 202, the operation shown in FIG. 7 is performed. The operation shown in FIG. 7 will be described below.

  When the data registration application program 202 is activated, the management apparatus 201 reads map data from the map database 203 and displays the map on the screen in step S31.

  In step S <b> 32, the management apparatus 201 reads operation data as shown in FIG. 5 from the operation record memory card 21 via the memory card interface 205.

  In step S33, the management apparatus 201 extracts only the operation data that includes the measured pressure value (D8n) as valid data from the operation data read in step S32.

  In step S <b> 34, the management device 201 uses the operation data extracted in step S <b> 33 to specify the area to be displayed and update the map displayed on the screen. Further, the contents of the operation data are displayed on the displayed map.

  Specifically, a mark representing a measurement point, an atmospheric pressure, and an altitude are displayed at each measurement point on the road of the map. That is, the operation data created at the atmospheric pressure measurement point includes information D2n indicating the position (latitude / longitude), atmospheric pressure information D8n, and altitude information D9n. Display on the screen in association with the upper position.

  On the other hand, the administrator (operator of the management apparatus 201) who is viewing the display content of the screen displayed by the process of step S34 measures the atmospheric pressure or identifies the weather among the many measurement point marks displayed. It is possible to easily select a specific point suitable for the above.

For example, the administrator selects according to the following criteria.
(1) Preferentially select a point where the management target vehicle is likely to pass on a daily basis.
(2) Preferentially select a place with little change in altitude.
(3) Select every certain distance (for example, every 1 km).

  In step S35 of FIG. 7, the management apparatus 201 receives an input operation by the administrator for each measurement point displayed on the screen. That is, the point selected by the administrator among the measurement points is recognized as the input of the specific point. Then, the management apparatus 201 generates the above-mentioned “specific point information” for the selected specific point.

  For example, when the management device 201 reads a large number of operation data shown in FIG. 5 and displays the operation data on the screen, the administrator selects the mark of the measurement point corresponding to the third operation data (D13 to D93). The “specific point information” is generated from the operation data (D13 to D93). That is, when generating the second specific point information (P02, P12, P22) in FIG. 2, the current position information D23 is assigned to the specific point position P12, and the altitude information D93 is assigned to the specific point altitude P22. assign.

  In step S 36, the management apparatus 201 writes all “specific point information” generated in step S 35 on the setting memory card 22. The management device 201 writes necessary management information in the setting memory card 22 so that the digital tachograph main body 110 can use the setting memory card 22 as a registration card for “specific point information”. For example, ID information indicating that the card is a “specific point information” registration card and information such as the number of “specific point information” registrations are written on the setting memory card 22.

  The setting memory card 22 created by the process shown in FIG. 7 is attached to the digital tachograph main body 110 on the vehicle as shown in FIG. 1, thereby registering the “specific point information” data in the digital tachograph main body 110. be able to. This data is registered on the nonvolatile memory 112, for example.

<Description of modification>
<Use of captured images>
<Device configuration>
A configuration example of hardware in the in-vehicle information recording device 100B of the modification is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8, in this in-vehicle information recording device 100B, a drive recorder 302 is connected to an interface 303 built in the digital tachograph body 110B. An in-vehicle camera 301 is connected to the input of the drive recorder 302. Other components are the same as those in FIG.

  The in-vehicle camera 301 is fixed in the vehicle interior of the vehicle and is arranged in a direction in which a scenery outside the vehicle can be photographed from the front or rear window glass. In the present embodiment, information such as raindrops attached to the window glass is extracted by image processing as information that can be used to distinguish whether it is raining or not.

  In order to take a picture including raindrops or the like, an in-vehicle camera 301 connected to the drive recorder 302 is used. Similar to a general drive recorder, the drive recorder 302 has a function of automatically acquiring the video of the in-vehicle camera 301 and storing it as image data when a traffic accident occurs or a dangerous situation occurs. doing.

  In the present embodiment, the digital tachograph main body 110 </ b> B obtains from the drive recorder 302 image data of video captured by the in-vehicle camera 301 in real time. Then, the digital tachograph body 110B analyzes the image data as necessary to detect the presence or absence of raindrops. A known technique may be used for the process of detecting the presence or absence of raindrops on the window glass by analyzing the image.

<Operation of the device>
The weather identification process in the in-vehicle information recording device 100B of FIG. 8 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, steps S11 to S16 and S18 are the same as those already described with reference to FIG. The added or changed process will be described below.

  In step S101, the microcomputer 111 compares the altitude data (H2) of the “specific point information” acquired in step S16 with the altitude (H1) calculated in step S15 to identify the weather (clear weather / rainy weather). .

  However, if the change in atmospheric pressure due to the change in weather, that is, the difference in altitude (H1−H2) is small, the weather identification result also changes slightly, and the reliability of the weather determination decreases. Therefore, whether or not the determination condition is delicate is also identified in step S101. Therefore, for example, the following comparison is performed.

When the condition of (H1-H2> Hth1) is satisfied: “Sunny”
When the condition of (H1-H2 <Hth2) is satisfied: “rainy weather”
When the condition of (Hth2 ≦ (H1−H2) ≦ Hth1) is satisfied: “subtle”
However,
(Hth1> Hth2)
Hth1: threshold (for example, 500 [m])
Hth2: threshold (for example, 200 [m])

  If a highly reliable identification result is obtained as clear or rainy weather, the process proceeds from step S101 to S105. In the case of a delicate state where it is difficult to discriminate between clear weather and rainy weather, the process proceeds from step S101 to S102.

  In step S <b> 102, the microcomputer 111 </ b> B acquires the video captured by the in-vehicle camera 301 as image data from the drive recorder 302.

  In step S103, the microcomputer 111B analyzes the image data acquired in step S102, and identifies the presence or absence of raindrops or the amount of raindrops on the window glass or the like reflected in the video.

  In step S104, the microcomputer 111B comprehensively determines the altitude difference (H1−H2) detected in step S101 and the raindrop detection result in step S103, and finally identifies fine weather / rainy weather. .

  In step S105, the microcomputer 111B identifies whether or not the weather identification result (clear weather / rainy weather) identified in step S101 or S104 has changed. If there is a change, the process proceeds to step S18.

<Possibility of other deformations>
In the in-vehicle information recording apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1, the collected operation data is stored on the operation recording memory card 21 connected to the digital tachograph main body 110, and “specific point information” is digitally stored from the setting memory card 22. It is assumed that the tachograph body 110 is read. However, if a telematics function for performing wireless data communication on a vehicle is installed in the in-vehicle information recording apparatus 100, data can be exchanged with a server outside the vehicle.

  Therefore, for example, the operation data collected by the digital tachograph main body 110 can be transmitted to a server outside the vehicle by wireless communication, and the operation data can be stored on the server. It is also possible to acquire “specific point information” required by the digital tachograph main body 110 from a server outside the vehicle by wireless communication.

<Supplementary explanation>
(1) As shown in FIG. 1, the in-vehicle information recording device 100 compares at least one of the vehicle speed and the engine rotation speed of a vehicle with a threshold value and outputs an evaluation result related to safe driving, and (140) A position information acquisition unit (160) that acquires vehicle position information that represents the current position of the vehicle, and a position that represents the horizontal position and the vertical height of the road surface for one or more specific locations on a predetermined road A specific point information holding unit (112) that holds information as specific point information (for example, the contents of FIG. 2), an atmospheric pressure sensor (13), the current position of the vehicle acquired by the position information acquisition unit, and the specific point Based on the height of the specific point information and the calculated altitude calculated based on the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor when the horizontal position of the information substantially matches, In both cases, two types of weather conditions are identified (S17), and a threshold value referred to by the safe driving evaluation unit is automatically switched according to changes in the weather condition (S18), and a weather condition identification unit (111) is provided.

  (2) Further, in the in-vehicle information recording device 100, the position information acquisition unit acquires the atmospheric pressure (D8n) detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor or the calculated altitude information (D9n) calculated based on the atmospheric pressure. It further includes an information storage control unit (111) that stores the operation data (for example, the contents of FIG. 5) associated with the current position of the vehicle in a predetermined information recording area (processing of FIG. 4). The specific point information holding unit (112) holds a part of operation data collected in the past by the information storage control unit and stored in the information recording area as the specific point information.

  (3) The in-vehicle information recording device 100B illustrated in FIG. 8 further includes an image data acquisition unit (303) that acquires image data from the in-vehicle camera (301) mounted on the vehicle. Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the weather condition identifying unit uses the analysis result of the image data acquired by the image data acquiring unit as a weather condition identifying condition (S103, S104).

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Vehicle speed sensor 12 Engine rotation sensor 13 Atmospheric pressure sensor 21 Memory card for operation recording 22 Memory card for setting 100, 100B In-vehicle information recording device 110, 110B Digital tachograph main body 111, 111B Microcomputer 112 Non-volatile memory 113-120 Interface 121 Clock circuit DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 130 Slope detection unit 140 Operation condition evaluation part 150 Warning output part 160 GPS receiver 170 Operation part 201 Management apparatus 202 Data registration application program 203 Map database 204,205 Memory card interface 301 Car-mounted camera 302 Drive recorder 303 Interface

Claims (3)

An on-vehicle information recording device that automatically collects and stores at least information on the operation status of the vehicle on the vehicle,
A safe driving evaluation unit that outputs an evaluation result related to safe driving by comparing at least one of the vehicle speed and engine rotation speed of the vehicle with a threshold;
A position information acquisition unit for acquiring vehicle position information representing the current position of the vehicle;
A specific point information holding unit for holding, as specific point information, position information indicating a horizontal position and a vertical height of a road surface for one or more specific points on a predetermined road;
An atmospheric pressure sensor;
Calculated based on the height of the specific point information and the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor when the current position of the vehicle acquired by the position information acquisition unit and the horizontal position of the specific point information substantially coincide. A weather condition identifying unit that identifies at least two types of weather conditions based on the calculated altitude and automatically switches a threshold value referred to by the safe driving evaluation unit according to a change in the weather condition. An in-vehicle information recording device. Information on the atmospheric pressure detected by the atmospheric pressure sensor or the calculated altitude calculated based on the atmospheric pressure is stored in a predetermined information recording area as operation data associated with the current position of the vehicle acquired by the position information acquisition unit. It further includes an information storage control unit for storing,
The said specific point information holding | maintenance part hold | maintains a part of operation data collected in the past by the said information preservation | save control part and preserve | saved in the said information recording area as said specific point information. In-vehicle information recording device. An image data acquisition unit that acquires image data from an in-vehicle camera mounted on the vehicle;
The in-vehicle information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the weather condition identification unit uses an analysis result of the image data acquired by the image data acquisition unit as a weather condition identification condition.

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